Max Soar

Just had to look up how to do subtraction by hand because I completely forgot about "borrowing". This does not bode well for the job I just applied for where "quantitative methodologies" was a desired skill.

Printed text reading "my problematic wife"

We consider, however, that the Speaker is able to deal retrospectively in the House with matters of order if the Speaker considers it important and in the House’s interests to do so. The Speaker’s primary task is to preside over the effective conduct of proceedings. Where an incident may have a continued impact on the House’s ability to deal with its business, the Speaker can address the matter. Retrospective intervention by the Speaker should be infrequent and used only in serious cases. In such situations, the Speaker could ask the offending member to withdraw and apologise, or could take stronger action if necessary. Members should raise such issues privately with the Speaker, outside the House. This ensures that the prohibition on retrospective points of order remains undisturbed, and members can discuss their concerns with the Speaker away from the charged atmosphere of the Chamber. There is still, of course, a strong presumption that points of order will be raised immediately.

Here's the Speaker's Ruling Brownlee is now relying on in order to justify requiring Swarbrick to withdraw and apologise today for what she said yesterday. It is a flat out wrong, completely unjustifiable, untenable application of the precedent. He acted from pique and now is backfilling the reasons

Auckland.Scoop » Statement On AI In Universities From Aotearoa Communication & Media Scholars Network

Important statement of concerns about the embrace of genAI by universities (mine? definitely! yours?) by Comms and Media scholars in Aotearoa NZ
auckland.scoop.co.nz/2025/08/stat...

Needing to enforce rules that say you can't be called 'spineless' or a 'liar' really does say a lot about the character of our politicians.

Not nearly enough people are saying “The Palestinians were right all along. We are so sorry.”

It is simply not possible to take seriously anything the NZ government says about Hamas knowing that they decided the Proud Boys weren't terrorists.

I think what's great about this is that old mate transphobe can't shut the fuck up and it makes sense that that they're working for Jordy Williams if this is the quality of work they produce.

‘Fair cop’: Chris Bishop publicly called out Tory Whanau. When she texted him, he took it back Bishop had posted that Tory Whanau said nothing about anti-Semitic graffiti in Wellington.

Bishop took down his tweet implying Whanau was an anti-semite saying 'fair cop' like he was busted pulling a cheeky prank.

Dude should post an apology. A deletion is just pretending you never did it. www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3607...

A crude drawing by reddit user MetalGearTom of Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables breaking a chalk slate over the head of Frieza from Dragonball Z

Wonderful things are happening in the Anne of Green Gables subreddit

imo stuff like this makes chatgpt look good / funny, like it’s clearly fucking with you

I think we should all find it very, very difficult to live our lives normally considering everything that's going on. Every time you see a Microsoft brand or owned company, it should remind you of this right here. The literal least you can do is not give them your money or free advertising.

‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians Revealed: The Israeli military undertook an ambitious project to store a giant trove of Palestinians’ phone calls on Microsoft’s servers in Europe

Israel is using Microsoft Azure to store recordings of every phone call made by Palestinians in the occupied territories, then using AI to analyze the contents and select targets. Microsoft is (dubiously) claiming ignorance.

I know a lot of you have already heard or read about BDS Movement's call against Microsoft, and felt weird and bad about it all, but decided to move forward as normal because of some degree of ambiguity.

"What service is Microsoft providing?"

Here it is, clear as day. A direct line to death.

This is a crowning achievement of the Whanau mayoralty. I'm so proud to see this get over the line after so much work from so many people!!!

Further cuts fund new tech institute - Expert Reaction Details of new changes to research funding under sweeping science sector reforms have been released today. The briefing confirms that set up of the NZ Institute for Advanced Technology will be paid fo...

Unsurprisingly shocking news: the Advanced Technology Institute is being funded by mortgaging the future of other science funding.

Had you wondered whether we're rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, or playing musical chairs?

It's both.

www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2025/08/06/f...

Every rich person is going to tell *you* how great AI teaching is while sending *their* kids to the kind of schooling the Ancient Greeks would recognize. I just wish everyone would think about why that is.

It’s not just that unemployment is up 28% since the govt took office it’s that they engineered it! If you have the faintest clue about how the economy works you know that cutting public spending impacts the private sector immediately. The govt is the private sector’s BIGGEST customer.

There's been minimal coverage in the Aotearoa NZ media on this protest, which is up to 9 days now.

They've been blocking coal extraction at Stockton, NZ's largest coal mine, costing the company $30k a day 👏👏👏

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Yup, I got the loan as a masters student and I don't think that has changed since

the problem with NCEA is, by recognising less smart kids and poor kids via unit standards and non-traditional subjects, that it doesn’t sufficiently demarcate smart kids or rich kids. this has always been the heart of why some parents hate it

Watch: AI will aid with NCEA replacement, Education Minister says "We're extraordinarily advanced in terms of the rest of the world," Erica Stanford says.

Introducing AI into education like this is a complete abdication of responsibility for actually educating.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/569...

Watch: AI will aid with NCEA replacement, Education Minister says "We're extraordinarily advanced in terms of the rest of the world," Erica Stanford says.

... if you use AI to mark exams, students won't learn the topic, they'll learn how to maximise keyword density

www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/569...

WELCOME TO THE OTHER SIDE! (we're all unemployed here)

Watch: Government proposes replacing NCEA school system The proposed changes would be phased in from next year, Christopher Luxon and the Education Minister have announced.

Teachers don't get paid enough for this shit. ##nzpol

www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Credit to the Whanganui History Online Facebook Group.

I mean, they are lying. Bishop & certainly Potaka knew exactly what would happen but thought they could just ride it out for long enough to hold onto power, by holding culture war carnivals, and relying on a demoralised news media to hate poor people enough to ignore the social carnage.

Bishop canned 1500 new home builds.

Potaka threw people out of emergency housing onto the street.

Chhour slashed funding to community services.

All of us are struggling, services are slashed to bare bones, families already overcrowded.

What did these out-of-touch Ministers think would happen?!

I'll be on TVNZ Marae some time after 10 to discuss the government's programme of voter disenfranchisement, including the outrageous ban on incarcerated voters. You can tune in here: tvnz.co.nz/shows/marae

like it's bad to see the sun shining over the scarecrow in his field because i Know this movie deeply and intimately and i Know there's not supposed to be a fucking sun up there. that sky's a painting, boss. that corn's fake and that man's wearing a costume. c'mon we're playin pretend over here